#goodbye dot grid paper

[hiyogdh]

some svsss oc scribbles to start a new sketchbook

[crimson-mage-02]

Curse of the Immortals

Summary: Rachel Roth, an agent to a secret organization is a single mother and works night shifts hunting monsters and demons to ensure her home’s safety until one day, evil has spread over the city and is forced to work together along with a half-demon and half-angel Damian to hunt them down. 

A/N: This is day 2 prompt: Enemies to Lovers/Fantasy and Fairytale. Mixed with Alternate Universe. I hope you will enjoy this because I do enjoy this a lot! I have been considering this as my new series! Let me know what you all think if you want to see more of this concept! 

Please sit and enjoy reading! Please comment and give feedback!

In a rainy night, she was reading a book in her hand and was looking around at the customers that were minding their own business, going about their day, and walked around the mall. She drank her warm coffee and felt a ball hit her foot, almost startling her.

The young, beautiful woman with black hair and purple streaks, bent down and grabbed the ball and past it to the young girl who smiled at her cheekily. “Here you go.”

“Oh, sorry about that.” The mother apologised sheepishly.

“You are good, kids these days, so spirited.”

The mother chuckled and nodded in agreement and rubbed her daughter’s face. She looked back to see the young woman in front of her has a badge on her and a holster. “Oh, you are a cop?”

“No, I am just an agent. I am off duty. Just….be myself, I guess. I’ve forgotten what it feels like.” The young woman replied, putting her hair behind her ear where her piercings can be seen.

“Where are my manners? Sorry, what’s your name?”

“My name is Rachel Roth, but my friends call me Raven.” Rachel replied, shaking the mother’s hand. “And you are?”  

“Sharon. I am a teacher nearby this mall. And I just picked up my daughter. On the way home.” Sharon chuckled.

“It is nice meeting you.” Rachel smiled as the mother and daughter took their leave while she watched them crossing the street. She smiled at the sight of Sharon interacting with her daughter and reminds her of her mother.

She heard some clanging noises and saw the waitress was giving her more coffee. She nodded politely at her and then drank more coffee while finishing up her book. She stood up and returned the tray to the employers.

She walked around the food court and looked at her phone seeing dozens of text messages keeps on coming. She looked at the GPS seeing a red dot appearing. She sighed. “Back to work.”

Rachel made a turn to go walk down the fire escape to the alley and saw her fellow agents getting their gear on. “Ready?”

“All set, sir.” Rachel said as she got her black leather jacket off, revealing a bow on her back and on her waist, there was her quiver filled with her arrows and on her thigh was a pack of knives along with her gun.

“Ten seconds.” Said her leader, looking at the GPS on the computer. Rachel got herself ready with an arrow pointing out in the air, waiting for the demon to come. She heard faint running footsteps and then she shot her arrow with an explosive with a demon appearing and roared loudly in agony, with blood spilling out from its eye.

The people around them all cried out in fear and all ran away from the demon with a truck coming to retrieve the demon back to their secret base. Rachel sighed as she lowered her bow down and helped her fellow agents.

She was in the truck with her closest friend Donna who just came back from her mission in getting another demon from another street. “Look at them. People are just so afraid. The world is no longer safe.” Donna said deeply as she took off her gauntlets of her arms.

“Someday, the world will be different. Someday.” Rachel hoped as she put her arrows away in her quiver. Donna nodded in agreement as she held onto her shield, that once belonged to her sister. She always wanted to become an agent just like her. Now she is. She wanted to make her proud.

“So, how is she?” Donna asked her with a smile.

“Hmm? Oh, Arella? She is doing just fine.” Rachel replied with a chuckle.

One of the men had stopped the truck with the creature roaring and growling at them as they entered a garage to a secret base. Rachel and Donna got off seeing all of the other agents all walking around with files in their hands and held on the tablets, looked through some video feeds. There are more demons on the loose and every day they hunt them in the middle of the night.

More agents were out in the field and are capturing more demons. She and Donna only take the earlier shift to capture the demons, since they both have their real-life jobs other than demon hunting. Donna checked their charts and then frowned. “Hey, Rach?”

Rachel looked at her friend while tying up her hair in a high ponytail. “Yeah?”

“It says we have another shift in about two hours.” Donna said to her as Rachel looked at the chart. She sighed deeply and then walked down the hall from the lockers and marched to the office seeing her boss, Diana holding the papers in her hands.

“I promised her. I promised my daughter that I come home for her.” Rachel said feeling guilty for her daughter.

“I am sorry, Rachel. We are on short of agents tonight.” Diana apologised to her fellow agent. “But I have given you those two hours to be prepared and have little time with her.”

Rachel nodded with a tired smile. She smacked her lips together. “Alright, thanks. I’ll give you my report over the weekend.”

“Of course, Rachel.” Diana smiled gently at the young woman. “And no need rush on those reports, you can pass them to my sister if you like.”

“Great. Thanks.” Rachel nodded as she walked out of the office. She walked along the hallways and greeted some of her co-workers with a smile and a nod like always. She walked down to the lower section of the base. She opened the door with a key card and walked in to see if her daughter was up.

“Arella? I am back.” Rachel called out to her daughter. She placed her weapons on the couch and saw a pile of books all over the place. She chuckled softly and slowly grabbed the books, putting them back on the shelves next to the tv. She also folded the clothes and put them in the closet and in the cupboard. She also put the bowls in the sink and the plates in the dishwasher. Turned off the TV.

Then she heard a door opening with her smile lit up, watching her daughter running towards her. “Mama!”

“Oh, Arella, my darling. How are you today? Did you read the book I have given you?” Rachel asked her, putting her hair back in her ear.

“Mm hmm! I was good the whole day. And Uncle Garfield has given me a new snack I could eat, but I waited because I want to try it with you.” Arella replied, going into the kitchen to show her the snack.

“Honey, I think I do need to have a healthy discussion with your Uncle Garfield about the snacks after dinner.” Rachel said seriously as she looked at the package.

“But it looks tasty.” Arella pouted, looking up at her mother. She sighed softly and then bent down to her level.

“Okay, how about this? After I finish with my work tomorrow, we can try this out. Alright? Does that sound good?” Rachel asked her, rubbing her arms.

“Yeah! That sounds good.” Arella smiled cheerfully hugging her mother tightly while Rachel frowned sadly, seeing she is going to be leaving her more in their small home. She was worried that her own daughter might resent her more. “Mama, I do understand that your job is so important to you. I will be okay. I can hang out with Auntie Diana today.”

“Is that so?” Rachel said, getting up and put the snack in the cupboard as she put the cutleries in the drawers while wiping the table.

“Yeah, she promised.” Arella nodded with her bright emerald eyes. Rachel smiled as she cleaned up the kitchen and then got her dressed up for the night so that she can walk around the base properly with Diana.

She got ready for her next mission and walked with her daughter in the hallway out of their home. Arella ran excitedly when she saw Diana opening her arms for her to run towards her. She hugged the little child in her arms. “Oh, I hope you are up for some hot chocolate and some movies.”

“Yup!” Arella giggled.

“Thanks again. You mind if you could get her to bed early? Unlike the last time, she read her new books late at night.” Rachel chuckled.

“Not to worry, Rachel, I have this wonderful warrior in bed in no time. Just be careful on your mission.” Diana smiled as she set the girl down on the ground and letting her get in the office. “So, Donna will be assisting you. And other agents will help you. Have you heard anything from Arella’s father yet?”

Rachel put her quiver on her waist behind her. She hasn’t heard anything from her ex and he barely was in her daughter’s life. She and him never got the chance to contact one another. “Um, no. He is off the grid. In fact, I never told him that I was pregnant.”

Diana looked at her friend with a sympathetic expression and placed her hand on her shoulder. “I’m sorry. But I am sure you made a right decision in raising her here rather than up there.” She was well aware that her daughter was a quarter demon and angel, though she has never shown to have any supernatural abilities.

“Okay, Arella, be good for Aunt Diana. I’ll be back in the morning to spend time with you. Alright.” Rachel smiled at her daughter.

“Alright, Mama, I’ll be good.” Arella smiled as she waved goodbye to her mother.

(~)

Up in topside, puff of smoke appeared with the lights blinking brightly on the billboards. He walked along the footpath. He also sensed something from behind him and he sighed, taking a right turn into the alley. He got rid of his cigarette aside and then pulled down his hood, revealing jet black hair with emerald eyes.

He got out his charms in his hands and saw the dark cloaked figure in front of him, preparing to fight him off. “So, you finally appeared, you son of a bitch!” He got out his twin katanas in his hands and swung his blades at the demon in front of him with blood spilling out on the ground as he cut off its head off. He looked to the side seeing more demons were after him. He made a run for it in the streets, but he was grabbed by the leg by the demon dog and dragged back in the alley. “Oh, shit!”

Meanwhile on the road, Rachel was getting her bow ready for their hunt. Donna was driving the truck while listening to the music softly. She hummed to the song cheerfully until they saw people running away and then a figure was thrown onto their windshield.

Both girls shouted in surprise while Rachel got out of the truck and saw the man was their other co-worker. “Damian? What the hell are you doing? You were supposed to be with your team.”

“I very much prefer to work alone, Rachel.” Damian huffed, getting off the truck, getting off the shards of the glass off his jacket.

“It doesn’t matter, you have to report back to Diana.” Rachel pointed out while getting her gun out while Donna yelling to the people to get to safety. “And what happened to you?”

“I found another demon. Seemed to be sucking the lives of innocent people in the city.” Damian replied, getting out his whip and then captured a dog while Rachel shot at it with blood spilling all over the road.

“Hey, I had that!” Damian exclaimed, seeing her jumping on top of the car, and shot all of the demons up in the air while Donna jumped up and captured them with her lasso. The two girls and Damian all worked together to get the people to safety.

Then he saw one man from the building was falling down. He got his white wings out and flew straight up to save the man from his death. He got him down to safety, but the man squirmed and cried out in fear seeing him in front of him and ran away from him. “Yeah, you’re welcome, human!” Damian shouted out to him.

An arrow was shot onto the demon’s head behind Damian, and he turned around to see Rachel shooting the demons that were coming straight at him. She kicked one with her foot and shoved a gun in its mouth, shooting inside.

“You’re welcome.” Rachel said to Damian who scoffed and walked away from her. “You should’ve let Diana know you were patrolling the city and we thought you back in Gotham.”

“I was in Gotham. But I got kicked out.” Damian gruffly replied until he pushed her aside with a demon attacking her from behind until he used his whip to capture him and be burnt onto the road.

Donna got most of the people to safety, leaving things to the police. Rachel and Damian had cleared the main road together and walked towards her. Then the citizens started to jeer, swear, cuss and threw heavy metal and rubbish at Damian. He growled in annoyance with the other agents were getting the people away from the scene.

They all had retired for the night as Rachel and Donna both taking Damian to their base. Hopefully, the night will not be long. Hopefully, Diana won’t be giving him another lecture of not informing his return back to New York from Gotham.

The two girls got out of the trucks with Damian leaning on the side of the truck, smoking a cigarette in his mouth. He glanced at Rachel who was checking in with the other agents. He noticed she has been a lot busy the last time he had seen her. She was more reserved, more assertive, more focused, and distant. He was about to approach her, but he smelt the scent of Director Diana arriving in the garage and approached him with her hands on her hips.

(~)

In the secret agent base, Diana rubbed her temple as she leaned back on her chair with a frown while Damian sat on a chair as he glanced at Rachel who looked at her oldest friend who hasn’t said a word since his return to New York. “You have broken protocol, snuck out the base and disobeyed orders from your superiors. For what reason, Wayne?” Diana asked him tiredly.

“I do have a very good reason. To stop monsters from hurting human kind. And to stop whoever is sending up there, killing innocents.” Damian replied as he sat up on his chair. “And my father have informed me that someone from the surface was a traitor and had unleashed evil.”

“And that’s the main reason why you are here?” Rachel asked him.

“Yes, that is the real reason why I am here, Raven.” Damian nodded, taking out his cigarette out of his mouth with a puff smoke coming out.

Diana narrowed his eyes at the young hybrid in front of them. “Alright. I will make sure I have other agents to handle it rather than a hybrid scaring the people off on the streets.”

The demon scoffed softly and looked away from the director and then raised an eyebrow hearing a noise from behind him and saw a little girl holding a book. He gasped softly and watched Rachel bending down to hug the little girl. “Oh, sorry, Rachel, I had Arella walk to the library again to get a book again.” Diana chuckled.

“Oh, it is fine. And besides, it is her bedtime.” Rachel chuckled lightly as she carried her in her arms, holding her book.

Damian stood up from his seat and then cleared his throat loudly getting the two women’s attention. Rachel sighed deeply while Diana cleared her throat and then continued. “As I was saying, until further notice, you are to stay in your quarters. Rachel will be your partner again until we let you go up to the surface.”

Rachel was about to protest but she doesn’t want to argue in front of her daughter who has fallen asleep in her arms. Damian was left shocked, not liking what he had heard from the head agent of this secret agency. “I am sorry, Rachel, but it has been years since the two of you had quit being partners and well, together. I thought this would be a good opportunity to mend some bonds.” Diana smiled, encouraging the two work together as a team again. Possibly try to work things out between each other.

Diana walked out of her office with Donna by her side and walked along the hallways. “You really do think this will be a good idea?”

“Well, we have no choice, sister. Besides, this will be a good lesson for the both of them.” Diana replied as she looked at the files and photos of the scene from the traffic.

Meanwhile, Rachel was walking back to her room with Damian following her but walked silently not to wake her offspring awake. He wondered when she had her daughter and who was the father and why he hasn’t seen him in the base.

“You used my room? Where will I sleep?” Damian asked with annoyance but saw Rachel was still ignoring him. “Rachel? Where will I sleep if I am going to stay here? You have a spare room?”

“Yes, but that is my room now and you will sleep on the couch tonight.” Rachel replied with a huff opened the door with one hand. She hurried to her daughter’s room and tucked her in with the dimmed lights on.

Damian walked into her little home seeing all of the pictures on the walls. Photos of her and her daughter. No sign of the father. He raised an eyebrow seeing a box of letters. He grabbed it and saw they were the letters that he once had sent her. His past may had held her back and now she had moved on. He put the box back on the shelf, remembering the moment he had betrayed her, and they decided not to be partners anymore. And realised that a demon and a human can never be together.

He turned around to see Rachel was gathering some bed sheets and blanket for him on the couch. “Rachel, I know you are furious of what had happened years ago and the other reason why I came back is that I want to set things right.”

“Well, you are too late for that. I already moved on, Damian. I have a job, I have a home, I have a daughter to care for.” Rachel said not looking at him in the eye. “You still betrayed me that day. You worked for that demon who terrorised innocent lives.”

“He was my grandfather, and he was going to make the world a better place.” Damian argued with his nails growing slowly reacting to his anger.

Rachel stayed still from where she stood. Looking into his emerald eyes and looked away from him. “I still believe that your grandfather wasn’t really going to make the world a better place. From what I had heard, your father had you trained, but you still haven’t changed one bit the last time we saw each other. But I am willing to try and help you and in return you help us.”

Damian nodded agreeing with the terms. As he took off his leather jacket and shirt to change with Rachel glancing at his scars on his back. She bit her lip and then grabbed the sheets and laid them down on the seat and had the pillows placed on top. “Make yourself comfortable. And get some rest.”

“One last thing, Raven.” Damian called out to her as he sat down on the chair looking up at her then glanced at her daughter who was sleeping peacefully on her bed, hugging her soft toy in her arms. “Your daughter……those eyes……” He looked up at her again with his eyes filled with curiosity. “Is she, our daughter?”

A few moments of silence had passed with Rachel breathing in and out shakily before speaking up to the devil prince of the Al Ghul Royalty bloodline. She was afraid he might find out the moment he had seen her. Damian waited for her to reply, but it looked like she wasn’t going to answer, seeing her shaking and trembling. He was about to say that there was no need for her to reply so quickly. He had loved Rachel, he loved all of her even though she is human and doesn’t care what others and other demonic beings say about him.

“Yes.”

“What?” Damian’s eyes widened and looked up at the agent before him.

“I said, yes. She is….in fact, our daughter. And you betrayed me, left us for your precious little demon world.” Rachel replied bitterly as she walked away in her room, leaving him all alone in the living room. She closed the door behind her and rubbed her face tiredly while sliding against the door, falling to her knees in exhaustion. She has never, ever felt so drained in her entire life.

(~)

Later that night, Talia Al Ghul had gotten word that her son, Damian has remerged into the surface. She grinned slyly as she drank her glass of blood in her hands. “It seems the humans had made him soft. And you…you have what I have ordered, Shiva?”

“Yes, my lady. It is all here. Little damned creatures will soon eat the flesh of human scums.” Shiva smirked.

“Excellent. Inform my father. Let him know of what has become of his grandson. Surely, he’ll be disappointed how he turned out to be after a very, very, long time.” Talia chuckled softly as she put the glass on her table and walked past her servant.

(~)

Damian explored the base and walked around to see if he saw anything familiar, but they had changed a lot of things after he had left the agency in New York. He also heard a few agents were bad mouthing him, whispering to each other while he could hear them due to his enhanced hearing as a demon.

He just ignored them as he made a turn to the left and then saw Donna who dropped her files. “O-Oh, sorry. I wasn’t looking.”

Damian took a step back from the human woman and sighed deeply, helped her to get the files. He gave them to her while being mindful of his nails. The very same claws he had slain other demonic and angelic beings. He was held back by his father who claimed he could change him for the better. He is the grandson of all Demons, but he is also the son of an angelic being, Bruce Wayne.

A blade was pointed at his neck and he glanced up seeing Donna looking down at him if he were a slave. He put up his hands to show he wasn’t going to hurt her or anyone in the base. “So….” He smacked his lips together before speaking up. “You were just here to kill me?”

“No. Just making sure you are not going to hurt Rachel, unlike the last time. You left her to care for her daughter.” Donna hissed at him.

“You mean my daughter? She’s mine and Rachel’s.” Damian smirked slyly.

Donna held onto her blade tightly and then lowered it down as she breathed out slowly and softly. She stormed away from the demon prince but before she does, she turned to the Prince. “If you do hurt her, that’ll be the time I’ll be sure to kill you. For real.”

Meanwhile, in Rachel’s room, she was cleaning her guns and arrows while hearing the door opening and saw her daughter wide awake. “My little bird, why are you still up?”

“I can’t sleep.” Arella replied rubbing her eyes.

“Oh, come here. Would you like to sleep with me tonight?” Rachel asked, taking her in her arms and let her lay down on her bed, she stroked her head and kissed her goodnight.

“Mama? Who was that man from earlier? He seemed so scary.” Arella said as she hugged her soft toy in her arms.

Rachel smacked her lips together and then caressed her daughter’s cheek softly. “He was an old friend of mine who came to visit us. And he is not that scary. He is just…misunderstood. I’ll explain everything later. Now, go to sleep.”

She put the blanket over her and kissed her goodnight before she turned off the lights and then walked out of her room only to see Damian was not present in the living room. His weapons were still on the table unfortunately. She sighed thinking he was just out of the base to get some fresh air.

As it has been said, he was taking some fresh air, smoking a cigarette until he had heard muffling from one of the guards. His head tilted to see as he jumped off the roof and then saw one of the guard’s soul was being sucked in. He grabbed his katana to fight him off until a gun shot was heard seeing a bullet came through a demon’s head and fell down onto the ground with blood staining the grass.

He looked up to see Rachel with a gun in her hand. She panted softly seeing a demon in front of her and then looked up at Damian who approached the guard and helped him up. “You alright?”

“Yes, I am fine. C-Can you let go of my arm?” The guard asked as Damian did not realise how his grip had hurt him and slowly let him go. He watched the guard walking past Rachel who put back her gun in her holster. “And why were you out here? I thought you were asleep.”

“I was getting some fresh air. Until I heard one of my friends nearly got killed by this monster.” Rachel gestured to the now-dead monster she had shot.

“it is not any kind of monster, I am afraid, Miss Roth. It is a demon from the Underworld. Sent by the demon lord.” Damian said with a glare.

“You mean the man who you used to work with and betrayed them? Your grandfather Al Ghul?” Rachel glared at him with her bow and arrow in her hand as her lavender eyes stared into his dark piercing emerald eyes.

“I suppose. But that man has exiled me. I have no choice but to come to my father. He was the one who vouched for me. And I yielded. I wanted to become a better man, a better demon……and angel.” Damian vowed with his eyes glowing in the dark. “I am on my very own mission to hunt every last of these demons to find him and take him down.”

“And what will that accomplish? You being welcomed back to your people once more?” Rachel glared at him.

“Yes, indeed. Claiming my title as the Prince of the Demon World. As you humans, don’t seem to be very fond of me being here.” Damian nodded, putting his katana back in its sheath. “You don’t want me to be anywhere near our daughter. And I do understand that. Remember, we are working together only for 6 months. After that if we completed my mission, we can all go to our separate ways.”

Rachel huffed softly and then looked to the side as she sighed. Thinking through of their deal Damian had offered. She knew for sure he wasn’t bluffing about working together and he was desperate to take his own grandfather down. But she cannot detect whether or not, if he’ll keep his word in leaving their daughter alone and not harming her. “You swear that you’ll never go anywhere near Arella? And that we’ll never see you again?”

“Yes. You know, I never lie, my beloved Raven.” Damian smirked as he offered his hand out for a handshake.

She looked down at his hand and then back at him seeing he was still smirking. She hated that smirk. She hated every little bit of him. But she has no choice but to work with him to finish the job faster so that she can spend more time with her daughter. “All right, but to make this less painful and fair. I’ll let you spend time with your daughter. She also needs a father, Damian.”

“Last time, I checked, I am not a father material.” Damian scoffed.

“Just for 6 months only. And she needs to know who you are until our deal is off. I don’t want to lie to her anymore.” Rachel pleaded softly as Damian sighed in defeat. Of course, deep down he cannot resist those beautiful lavender eyes of hers.

“Oh, what the hell, fine. Deal. As long as we can cooperate with each other. We are enemies and allies to each other.” Damian shook her hand as she nodded in understanding. Shaking their hands on their alliance with each other.

[dreamnap]

[fic] oh, i miss when we first met (take me out baby)

pairing: onesided sapnap/dream (dreamnap), background dreamnotfound

rating: g

genre/tags: angst and unrequited love babey! oh, and did i mention pining?

notes: me and @dream-not-found ​are twinning with unrequited dreamnap. go read her fic and weep. special shoutout to mitski, who i listened to exclusively on loop over and over again while writing this fic

summary:  It was as much of a confession as he was going to give.

ao3 link 

It could be love. 

Sapnap stared at the phone, the remnants of Dream’s voice still echoing in his mind. It had been the first video call they'd done in a while— a celebratory thing, really, where he had popped in with a quick happy birthday as the clock rolled over to midnight.

Dream’s face, though blurry from the dark lighting, was still clear enough for Sapnap to get a good look at him. The last time he had seen him on camera must have been years ago, and Dream had changed immensely since then. His body had filled out some, from what he could tell, broader than before, and he now held himself with a sort of modest confidence. 

It could really be love: churning, heavy, pooling into his gut.

He was handsome, in a way that still retained that characteristic boyishness Sapnap had grown familiar with from when they were kids. Handsome in the way his smile stayed in his thoughts even hours after he’d hung up.

They were friends⁠⁠—best friends, even. Nothing more than that. 

It shouldn’t have been anything more than that, and yet Sapnap had been grappling with the idea for a while now, turning the words over and over in his mouth as he lay under the covers, remembering the way Dream curled up into himself a little when he’d laughed, tucking his face in the crook of his elbow as he wheezed out some stupid joke he’d seen earlier that day. 

Love isn’t what he wants. It shouldn’t be love. And anyways, Dream had been mentioning a girl he'd met recently, seemed to have really hit it off with her.

It would pass. Sapnap would make sure of it.

⁠—⁠—⁠—⁠— 

Two weeks before high school graduation he gets asked out.

“I know it’s kind of late,” she said, so quietly that he almost didn’t hear. “But you should go out. With me.”

He did his best to remember who she is, but all he could think of was one of his woodshop classes, where she camouflaged into the crowd in the back. She had brown hair. Green eyes. Not memorable in many ways, but the relaxed smile she had given him on occasion when they walked in together had left Sapnap with all sorts of strange, familiar feelings. 

She left him her number this time instead.

He pulled open her contact, and stared at the text box.

They had joked about it before, sometimes. 

When you come down to my place, where should I take you out?, innocently thrown into the recording. Like as a date?

It was too flippant to be real but it had always made Dream happy, even if he cut it out from the final video, and so Sapnap knew it was never a big deal, really. Besides, it was fun to joke around with him, and everytime he laughed there was a tide of affection that rose through Sapnap⁠— slow, crashing, like the way a wave rolled into shore. The idea of love⁠—forsaken as that was⁠—always gave him a little rush of hope, almost pathetic in a way, that made him wish he’d get an answer out of him one of these days.

What kind of flowers should I get you? Roses? They’re your favorite, aren’t they?

He thought about the facetimes at midnight, where the room was so dim that his hair had looked brown, and the green of his eyes; the way he grinned so bright whenever he talked about his girlfriend.

It wasn’t his to take.

So, he texted. When would you be free?

He could work this out.

⁠—⁠—⁠—⁠— 

“I don’t think this is working out.”

She was sitting in the passenger seat next to him, the car parked outside of her house, quiet as radio played some generic pop song that melted into the next.

“I know.”

She wasn’t looking at him, which made it almost worse than it already was. She wouldn’t say a word, she was staring out the window. Her gaze was almost unfocused, as if she were watching something very far in the distance. The reflection glared back at him in the dark of the evening. 

And maybe it was cruel but he couldn't help but feel indifferent at it all. There was pain, sure— the same kind of pain that came with letting anyone go, but it was lighter. Different. It was mutable in a way, easy to ignore, and he found himself thinking about what to make for dinner instead, or if he had any homework due before his lecture tomorrow.

The car door opened. Closed. She never even said a goodbye. 

He couldn’t blame her for that.

The music in the background kept going until the words and the melody faded into a dull static, and when he got home he crept up to his room.

He debated checking Teamspeak to see if anyone was online. There was no way he was going to be able to find Dream that night: he’d messaged him about big plans and she’s gonna love this gift I got her as they’d chatted aimlessly in his discord earlier. 

I’m thinking maybe a fancy restaurant but— how fancy is too fancy, do you think? he’d asked. A dinner date, then. Sapnap couldn't help but close his eyes, and thought about Dream dressed all slick, and as the heat gradually rose to his face he knew he'd never be satisfied. 

But Dream had a girlfriend who he loved very much; he stood no chance, regardless.

He glanced at the monitor. Maybe if he stayed up long enough he’d catch George and convince him to do a quick PVP match, if he woke up early. Sapnap’s first class tomorrow wasn’t until sometime midafternoon, anyways, so he could afford to stay up late.

His phone remained silent from its perch on his desk. She didn’t call or text him back, and he never did either.

⁠—⁠—⁠—⁠— 

>i don’t think this is working out.

Dream’s message startled him awake as the small notification went off in his headphones.

There were papers scattered all over his desk, layered over the top of his keyboard and everything around it. It was normally never that bad, but now, knee-deep in midterms, organization has taken its role as the least important thing to worry about. Sapnap shoved them aside into some poor, forlorn pile to his right as he grabbed his mouse and opened up Discord to type out a reply.

>what??

He rubbed a hand over his eyes, glancing at the clock in the corner of his screen. One in the morning, which meant he had dozed off by accident over an hour ago. Another sound went off as Dream finally sent something back.

>how did you get over your breakup?

Breakup.

Breakup?

When had they broken up? Dream had seemed fine just yesterday, from what he could remember. He’d never come to him about any fights before, seemed happy. He sat there and looked up at the ceiling, trying to remember the last year, but all he could think of was the sound of Dream’s voice.

>just stay strong man

>it only hurts for a week 

>or two or three

Sapnap watched the three dots fall as Dream stopped typing, and waited for a bit for a response. Minutes passed, and then an hour, and Sapnap went back to looking at his notes. He knew Dream better than almost anyone else, and he knew when he needed his space.

⁠—⁠—⁠—⁠— 

“Don’t you think George is kinda cute?” Dream had asked one day, while they were playing on Hypixel together.

Sapnap's first thought is what?, and he sat there, dumbfounded, until he realized that it deserved to be said out loud.

“What?”

“You know what I mean! Kind of like a cat!”

Sapnap, in fact, did not know what that meant. He hadn’t even really known George all that well up until about a year or so ago, when Dream had pulled them in a Teamspeak channel together one day while brainstorming ideas for his new video.

Objectively, George was no cuter than a pigeon or something he’d pass on the street. He was fine, really, but Sapnap couldn’t see anything overly remarkable about him. Sapnap loved to bicker with him, and he was funny⁠—a little crazy, even⁠—but Dream thought he was hilarious even doing nothing at all. Dream waxed terrible poetry about his smile, praised the way he programmed, and always talked about the way his eyes had looked the one time he did a face reveal for a video.

Sapnap wasn’t really sure what to do with this information.

Dream likes him, he thought to himself later that night after George had joined the channel. Dream tried goading him into saying I love you while he was tossing him a stack of roses in-game, and George’s face flushed a funny shade of red as he finally said the words to get Dream to stop.

Sapnap looked at the two and buried his head in his hands. He stayed like that for a very long time.

⁠—⁠—⁠—⁠— 

Eventually he had hit a breaking point. 

They were streaming together, that’s how it went. They were streaming together, and Dream was riding off on another horse he’d picked up somewhere out in the near distance of their survival world. He was on his way to gather some more wood while he chatted with the viewers on Twitch in a relaxed lull.

Sapnap had been quiet for the most part, contented in his own small journey traversing the stripmine. He hummed along to some song from the chill beats playlist he’d pulled up half an hour ago as he tossed out andesite from his inventory. They had put George in charge of fixing a ruined flat of land near the tree farm, where it had only recently been wrecked by some creepers and poor timing. The battered holes had remained in the ground for about a week, until everyone was tired of being lazy and finally decided to do something about it. George sat there, where he complained for what must have been the last ten minutes about the lack of cobble to make stone bricks with and, well, Sapnap had figured he might as well get some more iron for all of them while he was at it.

“⁠—thank you for the dono,” Dream’s voice cut in, the rhythmic lilt of it so jarring that it snapped Sapnap out of his near daze as he dug along the grid patterns cut through stone. “Hi there. I love watching all of your videos! Can you tell George that you love him? And can you get him to say ‘I love you Dream?’ too?” 

Sapnap looked over to the second monitor on his left, the donation box fading from the screen by the time he glanced at it. Dream’s stream silently continued to play in the background. He was towering up to reach the farthest edge of a large oak tree, inching towards the last log buried somewhere within the leaf blocks. The chat picked up as some fans started to bicker amongst themselves. Dream didn’t mind them—never did, really—and plowed on through with his reply. 

“Haha, thank you. I’m glad you love watching them,” he said, not even missing a beat. “I tell George I love him all the time! He’s the one who never says it back. Geooorge, I love you.”

Suddenly how all of his collected material was sorted became the most interesting thing in the world to him. Sapnap took his time as he meticulously lined up the stacks for what felt like an hour. A second passed. George gave some kind of stilted laugh, the kind that he lets out when he feels too embarrassed to properly respond. Sapnap’s only thought was about the singsong way Dream called out that name in. 

“See guys? It’s not my fault, I have no problem saying it! C’mon George, do it so they don’t waste their money. Just say I love you Dream.”

“I’m not saying that,” George butted in, his mic crackling a bit. His video was off but even then Sapnap could tell from how he said it that he was practically squirming in his seat. Coward. It wasn’t as if he’d never said it before, but he was always so camera shy⁠, especially with his crush— 

Dream was still play-pleading for an answer, and so Sapnap decided to indulge him. 

“Aww, Dream, you know I love you. You’ll always have my love, even if Georgie hates you.”

That got a reaction. Dream burst out in laughter as he breathily wheezed out a silly, off-tune heart been broke so many times while George started sputtering, trying to deny it. 

Those two idiots. Sapnap’s been around them enough to know what flirting looks like. He thought about Dream, with his late night calls, where he bounced ideas off of Sapnap on what would get the best reaction from him in his newest video, and the way he had been doing it on and off for the past few months, now; George on his tiptoes until he ultimately stumbled into Sapnap’s DMs on Teamspeak, flustered over something Dream told him. 

Coward, Sapnap thought, as he watched the two of them do their dance. He and George both were, he’d give him that.

I love you, I love you, I love you.

It was as much of a confession as he was going to give.